This story was originally published by Inside Science News Service. (ISNS) – Scientists may be able to track dangerous ash-filled clouds by using information similar to the bars showing signal strength on a cell phone. The new technique analyzes the GPS’s “signal strength” – the intensity of a GPS signal – as it attempts to cut through a volcanic plume. The research was published online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters....
If global greenhouse gas emissions don’t decline soon, the climate in Washington, D.C., could more closely resemble that of today’s Greenwood, Miss. Summers may be slightly drier and more than 6 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than they are today. That’s according to a new climate mapping project by researchers Matthew Fitzpatrick of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and Robert Dunn of North Carolina State University. The project is designed to illustrate how U....
Projected carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from cars could remain level at three gigatons through 2050 despite many more personal vehicles on the road with only minor and affordable changes to existing engines, chassis and systems, according to a new report. The study, unveiled today at the Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland, challenges auto- and policy-makers to push for technology and design changes to existing autos that could double today’s average gas mileage of 26 miles per gallon (11 kilometers per liter) in the U....
Drilling for natural gas is booming in Pennsylvania—thanks to fracturing shale rock with a water and chemical cocktail paired with the ability to drill in any direction. Despite homeowner complaints, however, research on how such hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is impacting local water wells has not kept pace. Now a new study that sampled water from 60 such wells has found evidence for natural gas–contamination in those within a kilometer of a new natural gas well....
What would the U.S. look like without Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that legalized abortion nationwide? That’s the question now that President Donald Trump has chosen conservative Judge Brett Kavanaugh as his nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Reversing the landmark case would not automatically make abortion illegal across the country. Instead, it would return the decision about abortion legality to the states, where a patchwork of laws are already in place that render abortion more or less available, largely depending on individual states’ political leanings....
Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet by Steve Squyres Hyperion, 2005 Dying Planet: Mars in Science and the Imagination by Robert Markley Duke University Press, 2005 The planet Mars–crimson and bright, filling our telescopes with vague intimations of almost-familiar landforms–has long formed a celestial tabula rasa on which we have inscribed our planetological theories, utopian fantasies, and fears of alien invasion or ecological ruin. In the past few years we have been begun inscribing something new in the sands of Mars: tire tracks....
A huge NASA rover slated to land on Mars Sunday night (Aug. 5) is expected to give scientists and laypeople alike some amazing views of the Red Planet. The 1-ton Curiosity rover, the heart of NASA’s $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission, will try to determine if Earth’s neighbor is, or ever was, capable of supporting microbial life. To help address this question, the six-wheeled robot is carrying 10 science instruments — and a wealth of high-tech camera gear....
This year researchers expect the world to snap 1.35 trillion photographs, or about 3.7 billion per day. All those pixels take up a lot of room if they are stored on personal computers or phones, which is one reason why many people stash their images in the cloud. But unlike a hard drive, which can be encrypted to protect its data, cloud storage users have to trust that a tech platform will keep their private pictures safe....
Was the Red Baron just lucky? Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, better known as the Red Baron, was the most feared German flying ace of World War I. He racked up 80 official air combat victories—the biggest winning streak on either side—before being shot down on April 21, 1918, over northern France. We’re inclined to interpret the Baron’s record as proof that he was the best of the best. But a study published in the Journal of Mathematical Sociology claims that much of Richthofen’s success could be chalked up to plain old luck....
We often think of pollution as an outdoor problem. But many office workers are constantly breathing a complex soup of invisible airborne substances including ozone, carbon dioxide, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The latter are gases that can be released from molds, building materials, human metabolism—and personal care products such as lotions, deodorants, hair spray and cosmetics. Some VOCs have been linked to health effects including fatigue, difficulty concentrating, eye, nose and throat irritation, and even cancer....
What is fear? The answer seems simple, yet a vigorous debate concerning its meaning has been playing out over the vista of affective neuroscience. This debate has a long history, but it was recently reignited by Joseph LeDoux, who proposed that we should not only redefine fear but also change the way we experimentally investigate this emotion. At the core of this debate lies the view that emotions are conscious, subjective states....
In magazine reporting (and maybe science blogging), they say three events suffice to indicate a trend. So let me announce a new trend: popular entertainers are sticking up for science. Here are three trendsetting entertainers turned notable science advocates. Actor Alan Alda wrote an editorial in Science this past March launching a science communication contest to be judged by 11-year-olds. He challenged scientists to write an explanation of what a flame is “that an 11-year-old would find intelligible, maybe even fun....
Six months ago, as the northern hemisphere was still battling the coronavirus pandemic’s first wave, all eyes turned to the COVID-19 vaccines in late-stage clinical trials. Now, a year after the pandemic first erupted, three COVID vaccines have been given emergency authorization by either the U.S. or U.K., as well as other countries. Two of the vaccines, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech and Moderna, respectively, both employ a novel genetic technology known as mRNA....
The Olympic stadium was silent. The spectators held their collective breath. The 100-meter finalists, crouched against their starting blocks, raised their backs as the starter raised his pistol and announced, “Set…!” Each powerful sprinter, poised to explode when the gun went off, was keenly aware of what hung in the balance. They had trained to exhaustion every day for years to prepare their bodies for this one race. But had they disciplined their minds?...
Global warming may prove worse for insects—and other cold-blooded critters—living in the steamy tropics than for their counterparts living closer to the frigid polar regions, according to a new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. Even though climate change is likely to affect areas near the poles, tropical insects are already living in conditions that verge on being too hot for them, which means they could be teetering on the edge of extinction....
When Donald Trump aced a cognitive test in January, scores of people tried to take it, too, based mostly on media reports that invited them to match wits with the president. Casual users puzzled over line drawings of animals, while others wondered what it meant if they were bad at subtracting by sevens. That was a mistake, according to the scientist who created the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, or MoCA, a popular screening tool designed to spotlight potential problems with thinking and memory....
Hack Job Quantum cryptography has an uncrackable reputation. A sender typically transmits a message encoded by polarized photons; anyone listening in would cause errors to appear in the reception, alerting the sender and receiver. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, however, show in the April 25 Physical Review A that quantum cryptography can be hacked, at least to a limited extent. They found a way to entangle the polarization of transmitted photons with the momentum of an eavesdropper’s photon....
Shepherds on La Gomera in the Canary Islands communicate across long distances and over rough terrain with shrill whistles that represent Spanish word syllables. For example, those who know this “Silbo” language and are separated by a ravine can transmit a message like, “Meet you at the hilltop at three o’clock.” A team of Spanish and American psychologists studying Silbo has found that the whistlers’ brains treat the sounds as language, whereas the brains of Spaniards who do not know Silbo do not....
By Daniel Cressey of Nature magazineAbout one-quarter of seafood sold as sustainable' is not meeting that goal, according to an analysis taking aim at the two leading bodies that grant this valuable label to fisheries.In an online paper in Marine Policy and at a conference this week in Edinburgh, UK, fisheries biologist Rainer Froese of the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany, launched a stinging attack on the schemes by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and the marine-conservation organization Friend of the Sea (FOS) to certify fisheries as sustainable....
More than 10 years ago a troubling report emerged from the National Toxicology Program laying out concerns about the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) based on a disparate collection of data gathered thus far. BPA, a synthetic chemical used in the linings of food cans and in plastic bottles of all kinds (even baby bottles), had been shown to have ill effects on the brain, especially in developing fetuses and young children....
